Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Warm, Spiced Apple Cake (gluten free, egg free, dairy free)

Warm, spicy, deliciously calorific

Ask an average stay-at-home Mum what she thinks of Twitter and you’ll probably get a dismissive answer. ‘Why would I want to know what someone is having for lunch?’ she might say. Ask that same Mum whether she gets insanely bored doing her tedious, daily chores and she’ll answer in the affirmative.

If only she could see her need for Twitter! Slightly dissatisfied, stay-at-home Mums are the perfect candidates for developing a Twitter habit. With its short, snappy nuggets of information, it is a very suitable distraction from the mind-numbing grind of stay-at-home life.

To get the best out of Twitter, you need Tweetdeck. A dark, slightly baffling screen will appear on your laptop.

It has 'Columns.'

It has ‘Mentions.’

It has ‘Direct Messages.’

It is very confusing, in a dark and mysterious way.

It makes me feel like a spy. I know - mental - but see me in this cyber military ops room making world-changing decisions and issuing orders (in 140 characters or less). Very soon the camera will cut to a close up on my furrowed (yet still sexy) brow. And watch me give controversial orders to unilaterally disarm...

You see how Twitter can transport you?

The best bit about Tweetdeck is that every time someone I’m ‘following’ ‘tweets’, a small rectangle appears very briefly in the top right hand corner of my screen. It makes a little chirruping noise and gives me a tiny snippet of information that I can read, or follow a suggested link, or just ignore and think, ‘why would I want to know what you are having for lunch?’

That regular tweeting on my screen reminds me that I’m connected to the vast outside world as I sit contemplating chores in my small, stay-at-home Mum world. And it’s also a perfect excuse to abandon jobs, rush to my laptop and see what’s going on...

A few days ago, I heard the chirrup, saw the rectangle and quickly read the snippet.

What’s this?

Mum's the Blog has thrown down the baking gauntlet, aka 'Pudding Carnival? They are challenging bakers to produce, to-die-for Autumn puddings? Now that sounds more fun than folding the washing!

With some flicking through recipe books here, lots of tweaking there and plenty of tasting, well, all the time, I quickly came up with a satisfying dish to help you pile on the pounds as we head towards the hibernation season.

Warm, Spiced Apple Cake(This recipe is based on Clotilde Dusoulier's 'Le Gâteau de Mamy' from Chocolate and Zucchini. All hail Clotilde...)

I swear I have gained 3 kilos in the last week of trying out this recipe; I think I’m pretending it’s healthy because of the apple bit. Each different variation differs in consistency, but they all have deliciousness in common. I do urge you to include the pinch of Maldon sea salt, it is a gorgeous match with the buttery, appley, sweetness of the cake. Oh that does it, I’m making another one...

Grease a 23cm x 6cm round cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Dot the base with dots of dairy free margarine. Now line the outside of the tin with tin foil / aluminium in case any juicy apple stuff tries to escape

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C

Thinly slice the peeled and cored apples (use a Boysenberry KitchenAid if you have one) and place into a large mixing bowl

Add the cinnamon, squeeze of lemon juice, honey and sea salt. Stir to make sure the apples are coated. Line the base of the cake tin with the sliced apples

If making this cake without eggs, put the egg replacer, apple sauce, xanthan gum and 6tbsps of rice milk into a bowl and whisk with a mini whisk. Set aside

Melt the dairy free margarine (or butter)

In a large mixing bowl whisk the sugar and eggs or egg replacer mixture. Add the vanilla essence

Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the melted butter and stir again

Pour the batter into the cake tin and place in the oven. Bake for about 20-30 minutes until risen and golden, but the inside will be runny. Then cover the cake loosely with tin foil/aluminium to prevent the top burning. Continue baking until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. You might need to raise the oven temperature to cook the middle if it seems to be just sitting under its foil tent doing nothing

Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for about five minutes. Then place an upturned plate onto the top of the cake tin. Very carefully upend the cake tin so that your cake slides elegantly out of the tin onto the plate. Lean over and inhale the warm, spicy, appley fumes

Serve this with dairy cream/coconut cream/rice cream/oat cream

Have more

Rush to laptop and tweet: ‘Just made perfect apple cake, I rock, you suck.’

Ah Elsie, not so Twitterish really. Probably more a Twit than anything else? Or to stay with the bird theme, a tit? Good on you making my veggie chilli, load in the spice and knock 'em dead! (and v. impressed you throwing dinner party for millions when you have young children, that sort of thing brings me out in hives!)

Juicy Fig, go on girl! Hope you enjoy it, I'd welcome feedback if you can fit that in between stuffing morsels of apple cake into your mouth!Pig x

yummy just made the cake and was very impressed. I halved the sugar and feel it still tastes good. Also you have omitted to put the honey in the instructions. Yum yum yum def will make again and even add a few raspberries.

Oh Pig, what a lovely looking recette. I have an apple glut, so I will most probably try this.Thanks so much for announcing that hibernation season has officially begun - can I quote you when I am being criticised for eating my seventh slice of cake?? Mya x

Cake was made this afternoon. Oops my mum and I ate half with some coconut milk custard before it had stopped steaming. My dad then had to try, and doubting hubby also approved. All impressed! One piece left and its MINE!!! Thanks Pig warmed up a very cold day here x

It's always a good time to make...

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‘I've been cooking your recipes for 2 years and you are my God, Guru, Oh Great One...down here in New Zealand we eat one of your recipes at least once a day.’Diane, New Zealand

"Thank you so much for this recipe. I'm a total baking novice (I had to buy everything, right down to measuring spoons and scales to make these), but I really wanted to be able to make something for my my egg/dairy-free daughter while she was home for Christmas. These came out so well when I was having a practise run that I actually took one in a tiny cake tin to Heathrow to meet her! I made them many times while she was here, including for Christmas breakfast, and when she was leaving I made them again to take back to the airport with us. They were like little beacons of love, with added chocolate!" Anne

Hi Pig! Just wanted to share that although we've had the fab news my boy can now eat cooked egg as an ingredient and I'm baking like a crazed Mary Berry on steroids, he still is adamant that CAKE OF SUCCESS is the best cake in the world!!!! So I wont be throwing away the golden syrup or linseeds too soon! Lucy, Wales xxxx

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